Millions of benefit claimants will suffer serious hardship under the
Government’s plan to introduce a universal credit, dozens of charities and
other groups have warned MPs.

More than 70 organisations have responded to an inquiry into the scheme championed by Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, highlighting what they described as major flaws in the system which is due to be introduced from October 2013

The universal credit includes a new requirement to apply for benefits online, the replacement of weekly with monthly payments, and a single handout per household, which, it is claimed, could disadvantage women.

According to more than 500 pages of written evidence submitted to the Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee, charities, housing associations and other groups are particularly concerned about the difficulty they say millions of people without internet access will have claiming under the proposed online system.

Testimony from Citizens Advice said: "The new universal credit system risks causing difficulties to the 8.5 million people who have never used the internet and a further 14.5 million who have virtually no ICT [internet and communications technology] skills."

The charity also warned that paying universal credit monthly and to just one person in a household could "upset the family dynamic," with tensions likely arise if one person spends all of the benefit at the start of the month.

A submission by the charity crisis added: "The stated intention for UC [universal credit] payments is that they should mirror the monthly wages people receive in work and therefore be made on a monthly basis.

"We are concerned that this fails to recognise that many employees are paid on a weekly or fortnightly basis, especially in low paid work. People used to receiving more regular payments may struggle to manage their finances across a month long period."

The Women's Rescource and Development Agency said: "It is estimated that in 80 per cent of cases Universal Credit will be paid to the male partner in the household.

"This is a hugely retrograde step in terms of progressing gender equality and, we would contend, tackling child poverty. We are very concerned about the transfer of resources from the purse to the wallet and the backward step in terms of enabling women’s financial autonomy."

Mr Duncan Smith defied David Cameron by demanding he stay in his post rather than being moved to the Justice Department in last week’s reshuffle in order to implement the introduction of the universal credit, which has been described as the “holy grail” of benefit reform.

It will bring together of five separate forms of benefit into a single payment, which is designed to be simple to understand and administer.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, is said to have wanted Mr Duncan Smith to hand the reform to another minister amid suggestions that he had lost control of the costs involved.

He is reported to have demanded that the Work and Pensions Secretary now prove he can keep an eye on the finances by chopping £600 million from the price tag of the benefit’s implementation.

In its own submission to the committee, the Department for Work and Pensions said that those who struggled to cope with the new system would receive face to face help, including with advice on better budgeting for claimants who spent their money before the month was out.

Dame Anne Begg, Labour chairman of the committee, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One MPs would demand that officials improve the scheme if they could not respond adequately to the points raised in the submissions.

She went on: “I don’t think someone who survives on £60 a week is a bad budgeter – I think they’re a blooming good budgeter.

“This is a real radical change to benefit. But of course the devil is always in the detail and the implementation, which is why my Select Committee has put out the call of evidence about the fears that some organisations have about how this will work in practice.

“I tried to get wireless broadband for my flat just the other day and I couldn’t find anything less than £30 a month. On the kind of income that many people on benefit have, that is completely out of the scope that they can afford.”

The Department for Work and Pensions also denied that there were flaws in the technology being introduced by the Government to implement the universal credit.

A spokesman said: "Universal Credit is on track and on budget. Universal Credit replaces the current costly, outdated process with a digital system that will be simpler to use and make work pay.

"Research shows 78 per cent of working-age benefit claimants use the internet already, but anyone without IT skills or access to a computer will be fully supported and we have processes in place to help them."

An aide to George Osborne insisted the Chancellor remained "fully behind" the reforms and said reports that the Treasury was seeking to block or scale back the Universal Credit were entirely untrue.